Lake Norman school news

Grant Award: Hopewell High School's Academy of Hospitality and Tourism and Academy of Engineering each received $1,000 from N.E. Learning Zone Mini Grants to help fund their Academy Summer Camps. Each Academy will host a summer camp Aug. 14-15 for incoming ninth-graders. The first day of the camp will introduce students to the different aspects of each academy and on the second day the students will take a field trip.

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ProStart Students Featured in Magazine: Hopewell ProStart students appeared on the front cover of the N.C. Hospitality Education Foundation's first 2012 edition of the organization's official newsletter, "The Future of Hospitality." The students were also featured within the magazine for their "Just like Home" project. Through the project, students sold coffee to school staff. Coffeeboss Inc. donated a coffee machine and coffee to help get the program started. Funds raised by the project were used to make cookies that were delivered to the Levine Hospice House in Huntersville, N.C. ProStart is a two-year culinary education program.

North Mecklenburg High

Debate and Speech Team Accomplishments: The North Mecklenburg High School Debate and Speech Team won top honors at the recent Catholic Forensics League of Charlotte Qualifying tournament at East Rutherford High School in Bostic, N. C. The tournament determined who will represent western North Carolina at the National Catholic Forensics League Grand National championships in Baltimore, Md. in May. The North Mecklenburg High School team came in first place overall, beating the second place team by a two-to-one ratio in sweepstakes points. Students may not compete at the Grand National tournament in more than one event. Alex Pope, sophomore, placed first in Declamation and third in Original Oratory, and will compete at the national championships in Oratory. Elizabeth Kingaby, freshman, placed second in Declamation and fourth in Extemporaneous speaking, and will compete in Declamation. The team swept the rest of Declamation with freshman Okan Pektas taking third, and Cameran Hill and Antonio Rivera, both sophomores, taking fourth and fifth respectively. The team competes at the Carolina West Qualifier March 16-17 to determine who will represent western North Carolina at the National Forensics League Championships in Indianapolis in June.

J.V. Washam Elementary

Boosterthon Fun Run and Fundraiser: J.V. Washam Elementary students will participate in a Boosterthon Fun Run March 15. The Boosterthon Fun Run is a national fitness and leadership program that helps schools raise money while emphasizing fitness, leadership and character-building skills. This is the third year for J.V. Washam students to participate in the program. In preparation for the Fun Run, students are collecting pledges for each lap they will run. The school has received a $45,000 matching grant challenge from the Jimmie Johnson Foundation and Lowes Toolbox for Education, and must raise $45,000 through the Boosterthon to receive the grant. The school plans to use 25 percent of the funds raised from the program to complete a playground area, provide an outdoor classroom setting and buy an iPad cart for school use.

Bradley Middle

Reflections Program Winners: Bradley Middle School has announced the winners of its school-wide Parent Teacher Association Reflections Program competition. Reflections is an arts program of the National PTA that encourages students in preschool through grade 12 to submit artwork in six arts areas, including dance choreography, film production, literature, musical composition, photography and visual arts. This year's theme was "Diversity Means..." School Gold winners included: Madi Feder - Film Production; Tyler Couse - Photography; Christian Hammond - Musical Composition and Becky Eggebeen - Visual Arts. Tiara German received a Silver award in Visual Arts. Gold winners later competed at the county level, where Madi placed first in Middle School Film Production, Tyler placed first in Middle School Photography and Christian placed first in Middle School Musical Composition. Christian went on to become the district winner in Musical Composition, and his entry has now progressed to the North Carolina PTA competition.

Cannon School

Math Team Qualifies for State Competition: Cannon School's middle school mathematics team has advanced to the state finals in the MathCounts competition. Cannon and other schools from the region will send representatives to Durham, N.C. for the finals, to be held March 16. The American Society of Professional Engineers sponsors MathCounts as a problem-solving competition promoting math proficiency for students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades. The program combines the disciplines of education, business, government and technology. Cannon students placed fifth out of 25 teams in a regional competition held Feb. 18 at UNC Charlotte to qualify for the state tournament. The following students participated in the meet: seventh grade- Soumya Avva of Huntersville; Stanton McKay, Concord; Zack Olguin , Davidson; Brian Park, University City area and Mimi Wahid, Salisbury. eighth grade - Austin Coale, Concord; Angeli Gupta , University City area; Reid Herrera, Harrisburg; Davis Nelson, Salisbury and Christina Stylianou, Concord. Uday Uppal, a ninth-grader from Huntersville, was the team's assistant coach.

Phoenix Montessori Academy

Montessori Model United Nations Conference: Phoenix Montessori Academy of Cornelius will represent Spain at this year's Montessori Model United Nations conference to be held April 25-28 in New York City. Seven students from the school's 4th, 5th and 6th grades will join other students from nine different countries in presenting position papers and debating topics including peacekeeping, water issues, Palestinian refugees and UNICEF. The event finale takes place on the floor of the United Nations building.